Gundam AGE – 15

Flit’s arc comes to a close with this fifteenth episode and does so in a way that makes the series a welcome addition to the Gundam franchise. I admittedly had my doubts about some of the earlier episodes, such as the introduction of the Euba and Zalam factions and whether they’re really going to have any importance to the story, but everything came together surprisingly well in this “final” episode. Even Grodek’s betrayal of the Earth Federation and seemingly suicidal plan to take down U.E.’s fortress with a handful of dated warships and mobile suits panned out well, especially during the climax of the battle where he didn’t have a last minute change of heart and shot Gerra Zoi in the back, proving that Gundam AGE isn’t just a children’s show that encourages viewers to be “above” revenge. Instead, the show embraced it with Grodek not showing an ounce of remorse for Gerra’s son Arabel and only leaving him his name, fully expecting the cycle of hatred to continue and Arabel to seek his own revenge one day. Now if that isn’t a terrible lesson to viewers that breaks the mold of a children’s anime with good morals, then I don’t know what is.

Even better is how this cycle of hatred shows no signs of ending anytime soon, as Flit’s also decided to tread down a dark path of vengeance, despite learning that the U.E. are actually humans known as “Vagans”, remnants of the Mars Colonization Plan from 150 years ago who were cruelly abandoned by the Earth Federation after the truth behind the “Mars Rays” disease was covered up. There’s almost nothing positive to take away as far as either side is concerned, which as masochistic as it may sound, actually improved my impression of Gundam AGE as a whole. It doesn’t shy away from the travesties of war, much like the other Gundam series that came before it, and instead depicts a not-so-rosy picture that originally drew me into the franchise. In some ways, it even exceeded my expectations by making it feel that certain situations were beyond reparation, so much so that I half-expecting Grodek to commit suicide for his sins and “reunite” with his wife and daughter, Airi and Sara, in spirit. While things didn’t quite go that way, Grodek taking responsibility for the Diva’s betrayal and willingly going down as a tragic hero leaves just as much of a lasting impression — one that I’ll definitely remember this series for.

As for some episode specifics, the battle against Gerra’s gigantic Defurse mobile suit/armor wasn’t as climactic as it probably could have been but still worked well as a big last battle before closing the curtain on Flit’s arc. At the same time, it subtly introduced the idea of Psycomet “Mucell” technology that helps draw out a pilot’s latent X-Rounder abilities — a concept similar to Universal Century’s Psycoframes — which I imagine we’ll see a lot more of in the upcoming arc. It was also nice to see Yurin one last time (*sniff*), Flit’s anger erupt in tears, and Woolf’s stark realization that they were fighting humans all along. I’m actually quite pleased to learn that neither Largan nor Adams were conveniently written off, as I’m curious to know what kind of a role they’ll have in the future (if any). We know that Millais takes over as the Diva’s captain and Woolf becomes the ship’s mobile suit commander, but nothing about Largan or Adams, so I originally thought that one or both of them would be killed here. As such, I’m excited to see where the next generation arc has in store, which stars Eguchi Takuya (Kujou Kazuya as GOSICK) as Asem Asuno, Inoue Kazuhiko (who’s been doing the narration) as the older Flit, Kamiya Hiroshi as the Woolf-lookalike Zeheart Galette (same surname as Desil), and Hanazawa Kana as the new heroine Romary Stone.

I felt in a way Grodek was kind of minimizing the cycle of hate. By telling Arabel he’s the killer I figured he was trying to get Arabel to direct all his hate to him rather than any of the other Diva crew members. He probably figures there will be less collateral damage as he probably expected to be thrown in prison and he has no surviving immediate family members to worry about.

I also wonder whether he shoot Gerra because Flit forced his hand. Seeing that Flit was about to shoot Gerra, Grodek chose to bear the burden rather than allow Flit to do so.

Hmm, that’s an interesting way of looking at it — and one I didn’t consider. I took it in a similar manner, but didn’t see it as minimizing the cycle of hatred since Grodek told Arabel that he’s like him now.

@LK: that’s true but there’s a difference between killing someone point blank where you can see their face, hear their voice, and see their blood. You’re painfully reminded that you are killing a fellow human being. I’d imagine in real life its more emotionally stressful for infantrymen to pull the trigger compared to pilots of planes (or drones for that matter). In any case, Flit wasn’t aware until now that the UE suits were piloted by fellow humans. He originally thought the UE were heartless evil aliens. Hell Flit even says to Gerra’s face that “you may look you human but there’s no way you are!”. Flit struggles to continue to dehumanize the enemy so he can convince himself to pull the trigger. Its no different from armies from history to now that encourage their soldiers to “dehumanize” so that they have an easier time pulling the trigger.

So the UE aren’t aliens, they’re just Martians. I saw what you did there writers.

Grodek was COLD here. “Hey kid, I shot your dad in cold blood because he killed my family. Suck it up boy!”. I kind of think the narrative would have worked better if Grodek died though, like maybe if he got executed for treason. I guess he’s being kept around for next generation.

Flit’s final battle was disappointing, but then again the Defurse is just an ugly Big Zam knock-off so I didn’t mind so much. I did like how Flit never let go of his rage, since its shows how jaded he became after Yurin’s death. He looks like an emotional wreck and I wonder how that bodes for the next generation.

Overall in terms of Gundam this arc was mostly okay. It was neither amazing nor offensive, but it did get better in the final stretch. The 2nd Gen looks like it will some much better designs so I look forward to that.

This actually approaches a concept that this series could use to make it stand out even to those that are more familiar with Gundam in general.

Given that there are three generations, Gundam AGE could really play with the failures and expectations of the previous and subsequent generations (respectively). For example, at the end of this episode, we have Flit vowing to become a savior. Since we already know that the next generation starts next episode; seeing how Flit handles this young goal as an adult, how it effects his decisions, as well as how it impacts his son could make this a strong entry in the franchise overall.

This episode proves it was right of me seeing potential in this series.
The only problem I have is the way they ended it. It doesn’t really say Flit is done and has to pass the torch, more like the opposite.

Not….quite. For animation (i.e., what Sunrise deems to be Gundam canon), yes this is new.

However, for some of the non-canon manga sidestories, it isn’t. Crossbone Gundam has the Jupiter Empire as its enemies, the F90 manga has the Oldsmobile Army (aka Zeon remnants living on Mars), and the not-so-great Delta Astray also has Mars as a focal point. So, basically AGE decided to take some stuff from the non-canon manga stuff and bring into its animated/canon works.

And yes, Sunrise deems all side stories to not be canon, which is why a lot of people WANT them to be animated so that they can be officially canon works. Kinda like how the Super Robot Wars series can’t have the Huckebein series properly animated (i.e., a Gundam TRIBUTE) because that mech series has V-Fins which upsets Sunrise. Sunrise is weird sometimes.

Still watching, although I have no doubt this will be one of few shows of the Gundam Universe I will not recommend to others to watch (watching Victory Gundam right now, so maybe I’m just hating on lapses in story continuity and failure to suspending my disbelief). Sure, it touches on the fact that war is not pretty, but this show doesn’t capture the audience as well as it could have like previous Gundam incarnations such as 00, Seed/Seed Destiny, the original Gundam or 08th. Maybe it will be better off as the new arc continues, but as of right now, I’m in the “Meh” audience.

They ended the first part of the series with the bang. For starters, I was amazed with what Grodek did at the end, which makes him my favorite Gundam captain alongside with Bright Noa from Mobile Suit Gundam.

I am pretty much excited on how the 2nd part will end up considering that Flit, based on the pictures will likely be a typical bitter old man who is out for revenge. Also, I want to see how they will develop the relationship between Asem and Zeheart since based on the pictures I saw… Show Spoiler ▼

Surprising how this series did not take all of the gundam storyline-tropes in, and it’s running in its own direction (FINALLY).

Eventhough Grodek shouldered all the blame – from both sides of this conflict in fact – the war’s still on.

Now…why did the Federation covered the Mars events from the earth sphere? This, along with the cover-up of events from the past several weeks, they makes this episode more of a giant cliff than the other cliffhangers we’ve seen for a while (they’re also the questions that would nudge me when I continue to watch this show)…

I thought the ending was pretty decent. I was wrong about my guess that the UE were Jovian sphere humans. Still, the problem I’m having currently is the lack of information about the setting of Age. Things just pop up out of nowhere. I think the story suffers because of the lack of setup. I hope that the second arc will have a tighter continuity and internal consistency.

Lovely comments, Divine. It’s this kind of unbiased analysis and reaction (so succinctly articulated) that has kept me coming back to RandomC for so very, very long.

Honestly, these small comment fields are about the only place I’m willing to even discuss (or view discussion of) Gundam AGE if only because the close-minded, hateful trolling has become so very, very pervasive in the “mecha anime community.”

Well, anyway, my own view of the series echoes your own down almost perfectly. My largest complaint… or, rather, “let down” has been that the animation, particularly in the earlier episodes, seemed pretty dull, and that many of the fights lacked tension. Recent episodes have turned things around enough that I think those faults were deliberate, so there would be a more clear “Curve” to both pilot abilities and technology (come gen 2).

Well, that, and ever since I built the HG AGE-1, I’d been hoping to see it go out with a “Last Shooting” pose. Am I alone in this? I don’t know why I think so, I just feel like that kind of “death” really suits the AGE-1.

Well, judging by the preview, Asemu will pilot the AGE-1 for a bit in the next episode or two? Maybe there’s still a chance.

Geh! Sorry for double-commenting, but I wanted to bring up something else.

Does anyone else think the “truth” about the UE may have been changed since the series began? Them being humans out for revenge on the Federation is one thing… but it doesn’t mesh well with their tactics at all. Virtually none of their actions make ~any~ sense with that revelation.

Other than the shuttle that was attacked (and all of the passengers kidnapped), every single UE attack we’ve seen can be explained as them going after the Gundam/Asuno AGE device heirloom thing. They haven’t acted against the Federation proper at all, and taking 100 years to do so… seems profoundly inefficient.

I’m hoping there’s something more at play. Granted, the mystery has been handled far better than Aeolia or LOGOS, but it still doesn’t fell quite right.

I can think of two possibilities: Either they went after the Gundam because it was the only threat to their MS up to that point and wanted to eliminate it, or the UE are interested in X-rounders in general and caught a glimpse of Flit and Yuri’s powers back when they escaped the colony around episode 3. Think either of these is good enough reason to focus their attacks on the Gundam.

There’s still the original Japanese rumor that the U.E. have come from the future, and nothing that’s happened thus far has really disproved it, so this could explain why they haven’t gone after the Earth Federation in full force.

I’ve been thinking on it a bit more, I think the only answer that fits with the facts that we’ve been presented with so far is that….

The UE that have been in the Earth Sphere for the past few decades are NOT an invasion force, or there to fight a war at all. They’ve probably done little that we have NOT seen (this would explain why the Federation’s population does not view them as a threat). They’re more like an R&D team, researching and developing technology, theories and concepts around Newtypes… er, Ex-Rounders, and mobile suits. This would explain ~ALL~ of their actions.

When the UE attacked Flit’s colony, they were doing so to get information/technology on/from the Asuno family, who were supposedly very influential/wealthy/and the best “mobile suit builders” in the Earth Sphere. So far, so good. This also explains why they attacked a civilian shuttle without destroying it, and kidnapped all of the passengers and crew–one or more of them may have been ex-rounders, and as we saw in this episode, the UE are building tech to allow normals to simulate ex-rounder abilities.

The destruction of Angel’s Fall could well have been accidental. This would explain why Gerra Zoi was unable to escape. The same for the other colony that was destroyed, though that’s a bit less likely. Every other appearance of the UE can be explained by them attempting to capture/destroy the Gundam, or to study an ex-rounder (i.e. Yurin).

This explains there small military force, why they’ve had such a small impact on the Earth sphere, among other things.

Only two mysteries about the UE remain, as I see it.

What is the plan if not a typical revenge/invasion of the Earth Sphere? Possibly: to use x-rounder research to nullify the Mars Rays? Possibly: to sieze control of enough of Earth’s resources to terra-form the planet. Possibly: lolno, it was really revenge all a long.

And: what did the dying UE say to Woolf on Ambat? Might it have been something to convince him to change sides?

I don’t remember how old Woolf is supposed to be, but given how young Flit is, it’s entirely possible he may still be in his teens–which means that, with cold sleep, he and Zehato could very well be one and the same.

Great… the next new heroine look is as boring as Emily or should I say even worse? I don’t really care about their personality… in anime I care about the char look first, and then their personality. So if the char look is boring or freakingly bland I really don’t feel like watching it anymore. Hell the reason I still watch it is because of Yuurin with some hope she might survive, but in the end she didn’t and I also was hoping maybe the next female lead will look at least much more cute and better then Emily but… meh. This is what happen when you made a show that target the kids.

Wonderful ending. I knew from the start that this wasn’t just a kid’s show, and this episode is definitive, proof. I was half-expecting a return to old tropes and Flit having a change of heart, stopping Grodek before he shot Gerra (Yark Dole?) and things got ugly, but nope, and that’s good. By the end of the episode we see the darkness grow in Flit’s heart, and by now I’m pretty much convinced that even in the future he’ll still be hung up on Yurin despite settling down with (and for) Emily.

I found the scene where Gerra shows some doubt about his chances about the Gundam. No boss (mini-boss?) character ever does that, at least from what I’ve seen. By the time he died, I felt for him. He was just as human as the rest of them, and he wasn’t batshit crazy as boss characters usually come. The scene with his son was pretty jarring, in a “what have we done?” kind of way, we’ll definitely be seeing Arabel again sooner or later, with the whole revenge thing that Grodek hammered into his mind.

That said, Grodek’s the man. How he ended up was a grave injustice, but he chose to let only himself suffer for it, even though everyone agreed to join him. After avenging his family, he still held his head high; I thought he was gonna shoot himself though. All in all, a shining example of a man.

As for Flit himself, he’s a sad cookie. His love dead, he turns to Emily for comfort but doesn’t really feel much for her, then has a son that hates his daddy (from what I can deduce from the poster and the preview), and to top it all off he has a monster grudge against the UE. We might be seeing another tragic hero or, barring that, Flit’s slow self-destruction.

So now that that’s over, is the next episode going to be next week or three months later as the rumors say?

…That’s not deduction, that’s supposition. And while I think it would be nice if AGE moved in the direction you supposed, it really could go EITHER way. We’ll have to wait a week to find out. (Yeah, there’s no break in the series like 00. They only did it for 00 because Geass did it, and it didn’t work out well in either case).

What’s the other way? Flit coming to actually love Emily at some point in the interim years? But, but there haven’t even been any scenes that show their relationship deepening, and even if we assume that it’s already somewhat deep due to their osananajimi-hood, nothing actually hints at a romance.

…but then this is Gundam we’re talking about. Romantic developments can always materialize from nowhere for plot convenience, and I’m overthinking this, and NOoOoOoO! YURIN!!!

Flit and Emily relationship was already deep to begin with. They have no need to show they love each other because both know they are important to each other. If Emily was in Yuurin’s place Flit would of been just as angry probably in even more of a rage than Yuurin being killed because Emily was the one always by Flit’s side and also the one who has alot more memories with Flit. Yuurin is a fling in Flit’s life that came inbetween that didn’t last long due to unfortunate events. One Week is not enough to establish if a person truly loves a person or not which is the exact case with Flit and Yuurin. She was just an important friend who was killed as it stands and possibly become a love interest if she lived in 2-3 yrs.

Sorry, that’s not the way it works 100% of the time. You don’t always end up with the childhood friend being the de facto love interest, and most importantly there were no scenes to show that they had any deeper connection than that. Compare that to Yurin’s scenes with Flit, and it’s pretty obvious that he was smitten. It seems more like you’re putting yourself in Flit’s shoes and playing out your version of things.

Either way, Emily was barely at Flit’s side for the duration of the show so far. She didn’t ride in the Gundam with him or frolic about in the forest with him and such. Either way, Yurin is Asem’s mother. X-Rounders can mate and have kids without bodies. Didn’t you see Asem’s purple hair?

You do realize Asem Asuno is the third picture in the preview shots and not the first (one that looks like Wolf)? Emily might not of been by Flit’s side for most of the duration of the show but she was still there with him even in the little time she spent with him plus there is already fact that she was by his side since Flit’s mother was killed and when he is not with her he was with her grandfather. Fact remains that Flit solidly spent with Yuurin was only about 1 week. Also, I don’t think the time span between eps 1-15 is even 1 year.

Can’t really say because I have seen alot of of hard core fans of certain characters in animes that were unable to accept that character is killed off and could not accept who the main guy ended up with and kept it up till the that episode or sequel. Way you kept at it led me to believe you might be one of those types.

At this point, anyone who claims to dislike Age and still be a fan of the franchise is talking very much out of their asses. Even the most critical of viewers has to admit that Age has proven to be just as good (if not better) at this point than any other Gundam series in the past decade.

So I suppose its something like Earthnoids vs Spacenoids? :P
Good seems like Flit is still sane.

Veigens…(do they have vegetables on Mars?)
It would be good if there is a side story to elaborate on the Mars Colonization Plan.
Would like to see how they develop their tech.
150 years on Mars provide more realistic space suits then 150 years on Earth :P

Galette…
Is there something to the surname?
A series of experiments? Clones?
Or just an X-Rounder family?

Cover ups, revenge, hatred.
Sometimes I feel disgusted being a human :P
(Even more so when I watch those Taiwan soap operas.)

The fight against Defurse felt like a filler.
The main event is the revelation of the Veigens and the aftermath events.

I also can’t wait for the new generation. What I’m also wondering is what’s gonna happen with Woolf and Millais. They gave me that Murrue Ramius/Mu La Flaga pairing vibe and it got stronger when I found out Millais is now the Diva’s captain.